Well I had quite an eventful lead up to the launch... the Tuesday before I was in
my boss' office, when as I left, I caught my leg in his power/PC leads and then proceeded
to fall, full body weight onto my elbow... Crash! The result a broken, smashed elbow
now with a kind of Meccano structure in my arm (see pix below).

Luckily op was carried
out promptly, so I managed to recover for the gig. I did not think I would be going
early on, but with the help of my two good friends Simon and Steve (minders for the
night) alongside managed to get to the Roadhouse.

We arrived near to the end of the
album play, (completely forgot about the raffle at this stage) just was glad I had
made it up to see the live performance... we had distributed the tickets with Steve
giving me my flat number - 16.

FM performance great as always, they were on fine form,
even the bar guys were enjoying the set.

After the set around 10:30ish we had to set off (Sunday trains) when we heard that
the raffle was about to take place... we were half way up the stairs, and Steve said
let's wait...

The ticket for the guitar was read out, none of ours, but no taker, so a second ticket
was drawn… 16! Mine. I was in a state of shock and to be on stage with one of my
favourite bands was surreal to me. I have been following the band from the early
days before record deals, numerous Marquee visits. I know my statement of FM being
one of the best bands in the world may have seemed extreme but in my world they are
one of the best, with perhaps one of our most underrated singers in Steve O.

All in
all a great night and eventful week for me... one I will not forget…